Night of Champions (2010)
Night of Champions (2010) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on September 19, 2010, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois. It was the fourth annual event in the Night of Champions chronology. Similar to the previous three events, the concept of the show was that every championship in the company was defended at the event. It was also the first Night of Champions event to feature a non-title match. Seven matches took place at the event. The event had 165,000 buys, down on the 2009's Night of Champions figure of 267,000 buys. Storylines Night of Champions featured professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) television programs. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. The main rivalry heading into Night of Champions from the Raw brand featured the defending champion Sheamus, Randy Orton, John Cena, Chris Jericho, Edge and Wade Barrett, feuding over the WWE Championship. At the Fatal 4-Way pay-per-view in June, Sheamus won his second WWE Championship in a fatal four-way match against Cena, Edge and Orton after interference from The Nexus, and at Money in the Bank in July, defeated Cena to retain the title in a steel cage match, again after The Nexus interfered. At SummerSlam, Sheamus defended the championship against Orton and lost via disqualification, but as per WWE rules, retained the title. On the August 23 episode of Raw, the Anonymous Raw General Manager set up a series of matches that night to determine the next contender for the WWE Championship, and allowed Sheamus himself to handpick his opponent for Night of Champions. The matches saw Edge defeat R-Truth, Jericho defeat The Great Khali, and Orton defeat John Morrison and Ted DiBiase in a triple threat match, while The Miz defeated Cena via disqualification. During the night, Barrett called off The Nexus' "truce" with Sheamus, and at the end of night, decided to cash-in his right (due to winning the first season of NXT) to challenge for the WWE Championship at Night of Champions. However, the general manager announced that Sheamus was to defend his WWE Championship against Orton, Cena, Jericho, Edge, and Barrett in a six-pack challenge at Night of Champions. On the 900th episode of Raw, Chris Jericho added a stipulation that if he did not win the championship, he would leave WWE. However, the following week, he wrestled in a match with John Morrison under the stipulation that he would be taken out of the Night of Champions match if he did not win. Jericho lost the match and was removed from the six-pack challenge. On the September 13 episode of Raw, the anonymous Raw general manager announced the match was changed to an elimination format. In addition, the general manager also offered Jericho an opportunity to re-insert himself in the match via a handicap steel cage match against The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd). Jericho was successful in defeating the duo and thus was re-admitted to the six-pack challenge. The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand featured the champion Kane against his storyline half-brother The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship. Approximately three months prior, The Undertaker had been mysteriously put in a vegetative state. Upon finding out about this, Kane had attempted to seek vengeance against the culprit. At the Money in the Bank pay-per-view, Kane had won the Money in the Bank ladder match and cashed in his contract later that night against then champion Rey Mysterio. Mysterio used his rematch clause on Kane to challenge him at SummerSlam, but failed to regain the title. During the weeks leading up to SummerSlam, Kane was convinced that Mysterio was the one behind the attack on his brother and upon defeating him, attempted to put him in a casket when The Undertaker appeared inside it. Upon seeing his brother again, Kane attacked The Undertaker, turning him heel. On the September 3 episode of SmackDown, Kane challenged The Undertaker, putting his championship on the line and promising to end The Undertaker for good. Then, on the September 10 episode of SmackDown, Undertaker challenged Kane to make the title match No Holds Barred, which he agreed to a week later. Another rivalry involved an inter-brand match involving the WWE Divas Champion Melina and the WWE Women's Champion Layla and Michelle McCool, collectively known as Lay-Cool, in a title unification Match. On May 14, Layla had pinned Beth Phoenix in a handicap match to win the Women's championship. However, both Layla and McCool decided to make themselves Co-Women's Champion (as, by their logic, the Championship was won in a handicap match), going as far as splitting the main championship belt to keep co-reign. At SummerSlam, Melina had won the Divas Championship from Alicia Fox. After the match, Lay-Cool attacked Melina, stating they had defeated everyone on the SmackDown brand while champions and decided to go after the Raw Divas. On the 900th episode of Raw, LayCool challenged Melina to a title unification match at Night of Champions. Melina accepted under one condition, their match would be a lumberjill match. Another rivalry from Raw involved champion The Miz against Daniel Bryan for the WWE United States Championship. The feud had begun during the first season of NXT, when The Miz was Bryan's storyline mentor, and felt that Bryan did not respect him. Bryan had been released from WWE in June, but returned at SummerSlam to join Team WWE, taking The Miz's place. Afterward, the two resumed their rivalry, distracting or attacking each other during matches, with The Miz joined by his rookie from the second season of NXT, Alex Riley. On the September 6 episode of Raw, Bryan challenged The Miz for the United States Championship, which The Miz accepted. Another SmackDown rivalry involved the champion Dolph Ziggler against Kofi Kingston for the WWE Intercontinental Championship. On the August 6 episode of SmackDown, Ziggler defeated Kingston for his Intercontinental Championship after his manager Vickie Guerrero distracted the referee during Kingston's pinfall on Ziggler. Kingston got a rematch at SummerSlam only for The Nexus to interfere resulting in a no contest. Following this, Kingston got several rematches against Ziggler, only to be disqualified for one of them and counted out for another. To correct this, General Manager Theodore Long declared that Ziggler would defend his title against Kingston and if he were to be disqualified or counted out, then the title would go to Kingston. Aftermath Results * The lumberjills were: Alicia Fox, Brie Bella, Eve Torres, Gail Kim, Jillian Hall, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maryse, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Rosa Mendes and Tamina. Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Night of Champions Category:Night of Champions Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2010 Pay-Per-View Events